Overhead acting door



Feb. 16, 1931 i M. L. CORNELL ET AL OVERHEAD ACTING DOOR Filed April 12, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 4AM gas RNEYJ Feb. 16, 1937. M, 'RNeLL ET AL 2,071,161

OVERHEAD ACTING DOOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 12, 1935 v 7 I I v I 44 1am 624VENTORS I Feb. 16 1931. M. L CORNELL 21-111.

OVERHEAD ACTING DOOR rum April 12, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 $116 ENTOgS,

ATTORNEYS Lw, azm.m

, fe sts Fa. .16, 1937 PIUNITEJD' STATES PATENT OFFICE OVERHEAD ACTING DOOR I Milton L. Cornell, New York, and Rowland K.

Bennett, Staten Island, N. Y., assignors to Gornell Iron Works, I nc., Long Island City, N.,Y.,. a corporation of New York Application A pril 12, 1935, Serial No. 15,991 12 Claims. (01. 20-19) This invention relates to overhead' acting doors of the rigid single panel or canopy" type. I A general object of the invention is to provide such a door having improved features of design affording a better closure and one that operates and functions in a manner superior to that Ohtainable with presently available doors of this ype.

o More specifically, objects of the invention are to provide a canopy door having an improved formof weather stripping which assures a tight closure at the sides of the door without interfering with its operation, or encroaching on the door' 25 overhead position in a too forceful and destructive manner. 1

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the fea- 30 tures of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplifled in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the application of which will be in-.

dicated in the claims.

36 For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in

40 Fig. 1 is. afragmentary contracted view of a door and its associated appurtenances constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention; f

.Fig. 2 isa vertical sectional view taken along 45 line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

I Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale corresponding substantially to line 3-3 of Fig. 1, parts thereof being broken away better to show the construction;

Fig. 4=is a fragmentary vertical sectional view substantially corresponding to Fig. 3 but show- V ing the door in its open overhead position; I

' ,Fig. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional viewtaken along line 5-5 of Fig. 1,-"on a scale 7 corresponding to that of Figs. 3 and 4;

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view, on'a further enlarged scale, taken along lines 6-6 of Fig. 1; i

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary elevation of the upper right hand corner ofthe door shown in Fig. 1, 5 parts being broken away better to show the construction; and

' g. 8 is a fragmentaryperspective view, on an enlarged scale, of the upper right hand corner of the door per se, particularly showing the weather 10 stripping structure.

Referring more particularly to the drawings,

- there is shown'in Fig. 1 a canopy door It! comprising a flat nonarticulated' rigid .panel which is adapted to cover the entire door opening defined by the jambs ll, sill l2, and lintel i3. These parts may fibe of any'suitable, approved design. In the present illustrative embodiment, the jambs II are preferably formed of angle iron (Figs. 5

and 6) extending from topto' bottom of the door opening and attached in any suitable manner to the wall ll of the building. A dressed timber, or any other suitably smooth surfaced member, may be substituted for .the angle iron. v

At .its upper portion the door has ateach side edge a bracket Hi to which is pivotally attached a supporting strap l6 which-in turn is pivotally suspended at I! from its associated jamb II, or from any other suitable supporting bracket on the building. The arrangement of these parts is such that when the door is in its closed vertical position, it may hang from straps IG and have all or any desired part of its weight supported thereby, thus rendering unnecessary any heavy or binding bearing contact between the bottom roll of the door and-the sill l2. A further function of these straps is to guide the upper part of the door outwardly when raised. I

The door is additionally provided at, each side I edge with brackets l8 .which are vertically. lo,--

cated at about the :balance point thereof. These brackets each are providedwith a hearing I! in which the shaft of a guiding roller 20, best shown in Figs. 5 and 7, is mounted. The guiding rollers 20 at each side of the door are respectively ver- 4.5-

tically slidable in vertical guides 2| (Figs. 1, 5

and '7). Doors of this type are counterweighted or counter sprung, as forexampie in the manner hereinafter to be described, so that upon opening they heretofore have shown a tendency to acquire considerable upward momentum, which when suddenly arrestedthrough contact of the door with the lintel [3, causes destructive stresses to be applied to the door structure. In accordancevwith the'present invention, this is avoided I from front to back,*is somewhat less than the diameter of the roller 20 at the channels least dimension, but is suflicient in its wider portionsfreely to accommodate this roller. The entire channel 'is fastened in any suitable manner to an angle iron 23 which is in turn fixed to the jamb ll. Each guiding channel 2| adjacent its upper end is distorted-as by bending inwardly at 24 (Figs. 1 and '7) for-a distance d (Fig. 7) suflicient to cause the'converging sidewalls of the channel to close upon .and slightly bind the roller 20 during the last portion of its upward movement. There is sufllcient resilience in the metal parts employed such as the channel 2! and, if desired, the support 23, to brake' or retard the opening movement of the door without absolutely binding the roller 20, thus assuring an easy. cushioned stop. Instead of bending in the upper portions of guide channels 2|, the portions-22 may be bent outwardly'to bind the roller 20 more closely as the limit of its travel approaches or the entire channel may be mounted slightly out of plumb so as to have the desired wedging eflect at its upper end. Also, the downward closing movement of the door may be braked by similar distortion of guides 2|, if'desired, so that both movements of the door may be cushioned.

A collar'25, best shown-in Fig. 7, is fitted over the shaft of roller 20 at each side of the door, and

from these respective collars cable sections" 23 and 21 are run to a counterweight 28. The cable section 25runs over sheaves 29 and 30 (Figs. 1 and 3) and the cable section 21 runs over a sheave 3| being led downwardly from sheaves 30 and 3| to a cable length compensating device generally indicated at 32 (Fig. '7). This device comprises a pair of spaced plates 33, only the forward one of which is visible in the illustration, which are joined by pins 34 and 35 around which the respective cable sections 26 and 21 are passed and between which these sections are pulled up i to form a bight 36, which is held clamped against slippage by suitable screw joined clamping plates such as 31. The counterweight 28 may preferably comprise a plurality of sections hung on a strap 38 which is pivotally suspended from a pin 39 joining the plates 33. This construction allows the plates 33 to tilt one way or the other in order to compensate for slight differences in the relative lengths of cable sections 26 and 21, so that an equalized counter balancing force will .be applied to the respective brackets l8 at each side of the door, at all times.

It will be understood that if desired, any conventional or suitable form of spring counterbalance may be employed in lieu of the weight arrangement shown, and the term counterbalance as herein used, is intended to apply to either spring or weight types of equipment.

In view of the fact that an equalized counter balancing at both sides of the door is provided, it is possible to operate the door from one side or the other without having it bind. In accordance with the present illustrative showing of the invention, the door is operated from the right side as viewed in Fig. 1 by means of a rigid operating strap 40 which is formed of metal and is suspended from the bearing l9 at the right side of the door by means of a loose motion slot M (Fig. 3). This strap is so located along the bearing that it hangs to the right of the jamb angle iron H as viewed, for example, in Fig. 7, A

bracket 42 having an open ended slot is ailixed to the outer face of the door adjacent the lower end of strap 40, and,a pin 43 amxed to this strap projects toward and is adapted to seat within the open ended slot in bracket 42 when the door is in its completely closed position. ,At such'time the pin 43 spans the edge 44 (Fig. 6) of the jamb ll so that any tendency to swing the bottom of the door inwardly is arrested through abutment of this pin against the jamb. This prevents unintentional opening of the door through inadvertent application of forces to the body of the door tending to swing its lower part inwardly or its top part outwardly. On the other hand-when it is desired to tilt and raise the door to its open position, this can be done by grasping a forwardly extending .handle portion 45 of the strap 40 and bodily lifting the strap until the loose motion at 4| is taken up, at which time the pin 43 will clear the bracket 42 so, that the door is free to swing inwardly away from such pin. This construction may be modified by omitting the slot in strap 40, and instead mounting the bracket 42 so that it may be moved vertically to clear pin 43 by a cylinder lock, handle or other means on the door. Continued upward movement of the strap 40 applies an upward force to the bearing I9, thusele- 'vating the door, which by virtue of its suspension from straps l6 tends to swing about the axis of bearing I 8 so as to adopt the horizontal overhead position shown in Fig. 4.

In order to prevent undesired lowering of the door, a supporting ledge 46 (Fig. 4) is mounted on the door jamb in position to underlie and support a heel 41 (Fig. 4) on the strap 40 which latter by virtue of its rigidity, prevents descent of the door until such heel is disengaged by pulling outwardly on the handle 45. By means of this construction the door is adapted positively to be held in either its open or closed position against accidental forces, such as wind, weight of snow, etc., which, because of its rather sensitive balance, might otherwise readily tend to cause it to swing to an unwanted position. A further advantage of this operating structure is that the rigidity of the strap 40 makes itpossible to continue to apply opening force to the dooipeven after the latter'is out of manual reach. Heretofore it has been customary, in manually operated doors of this type, to aflix a flexible operating strap or leather or the like centrally of the lower rail. This arrangement, in addition to hanging down in the way when the door is in overhead position, necessitated the use of a pole or the like to complete the opening of the door after it was out of manual reach or else called for a violent opening shove, which, prior to provision of the herein described braking equipment, had noisy and destructive effects. By locating the present operating strap at the side of the door, it is never in the way.

Heretofore, withfldoors of this type, considerable difliculty has been experience in providing a properly weather proofed closure, particularly after they have been in service for a while and subjected to warping and curling. In accordance with the present invention, a permanently effective weather proofing is obtained by applying a yieldable outwardly biased weather stripping along the lateral edges of the door between such edges and the jamb. This weather proofing, which is best shown in Figs. 6 and 8, comprises a sheet metal channel 48 having intumed flanges as at 49 between which is slidably telescoped a mating channel 50 having outturned retaining flanges 5|. These complementary channels ll 5. A- canopy type overhead acting door com-f and 50 extend from top to bottom of the door along each lateral edge and the channel 50 is normally spring biased outwardly bymeans oi.

. suitably spaced leafsprings 62. These springs constantly urge the channel 50 into weather tight contact with their adjacent jamb Ii. The spring pressure between these parts does not adversely affect the operation of the door, because during most of the opening and closing movement thereof, the channel 50 is in rubbing contact with the jamb ll only for a short distance adjacent its middle portion, and because there should be provided relatively smooth surfaces in the parts of janrb il and channel 50 which are in contact during mpfiement of the door.

Thetcp of the door is made weather tight by means 129i a resilient upwardly curved strip of metal 53 which is'adapted to abut the lintel when the door is in closed position. The holes for attaching part 53 to the door are preferably slotted as shown to allow of adjustment against the face of the lintel.

It willbe seen that there has been provided a weatherproof canopy type door which is capable of generally improved performance and operation, and which is well suited to fulfill its intended functions. 1

-Since certain changes may be made in the above construction and different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative-and not. in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described. and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of. language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A canopy type overhead acting door comprising a door body, means suspending said door for movement between closed and open positions, elongate guideways along which said door is movable, said guideways being arranged frictionally to retard said door as it ends one of said movements.

2. A canopy typeoverhead acting door comprising a door body, means suspending said door for movement between closed and open positions, an element projecting from said door, an elongate guideway limiting movement of said element to a linear path, said guideway being arranged frictionally to retardsaid element as said door ends ways being distorted at their upper ends frictionally to engage and retard said elements as the door is opened.

' guideways being distorted at their upper ends frictionally to engage and retard said elements as the door is opened.

prising a doorway, a door. body, a counterbalance, means suspending said door from said counterbalance for vertical movement between closed and open positions. link means between said door and doorway compelling said door .to 7

6..A canopy type overhead acting door comprising a door body, means suspending said door for movement between closed and open positions, a rigid operating strap for manually operating said door having one end pivotally attached vent unintentional loweringof said door when it is in open position.

'7. A canopy typeoverhead acting door comprising a door body, means suspending said door for vertical movement between closed and open positions, means forcing said door to turn about one of its horizontal axes during such vertical movement, a rigid strap for. manually operating said door having one end pivotally attached thereto and having its other end free, and lock-'- ing means associated with said strap and an adjacent door frame for preventing said door from turning about said horizontal axis.

8. A canopy type overhead acting door comprising a door jamb, a door body, means suspending said door body for vertical movement between closed and open positions, means forcing said door body to turn about one of its horizontal axes during such vertical movement, a rigid strap pivotally suspended from one side of said door for loose motion with respect thereto. a pin projecting from said strap toward said door and spanning said jamb, and a slotted bracket on said door adapted to receive said pin when said door and said strap are both in their lowerthereto and having its other end free, and means for supporting the free end of said strap to premost positions, said pin being removable from laterally spaced jambs having flat unobstructed surfaces substantially parallel with the lateral edges of said door body, said surfaces extending over all portions of the jamb which are opposed to said edges during operation of the door, means suspending said door body for vertical movement between said jambs, meansfor turning said door body about one of. its horizontal axes duringsuch vertical movement, and weather stripping means located on said door between the lateral edges of said door and their adjacent jambs for rubbing contact with the latter.

10. A canopy type overhead acting door comprising a door body, a door opening including laterally spaced jambs having flat unobstructed surfaces substantially parallel with the lateral edges of said door body, said surfaces extending over all portions of the jamb which are opposed to said edges during-operation of the door, means suspendingsaid door body for vertical movement between saidjambs, means for turning said door body about one of its horizontal axes during such vertical movement, and spring biased, expandable weather stripping means located on said door between the lateral edges of said door and their adjacent jambs, the portions of said weather stripping means adjoining said axis being in constant rubbing contact with and laterally confined by said lambs. V

11. A canopy type overhead, acting door comprisinga door body, a door opening including laterally spaced lambs having flat unobstructed surfaces substantially parallel with the lateral edges of said door body, said surfaces extending over all portions or thelamb which are opposed to said edges during operation of the door, means suspending said door body for vertical movement between said lambs, means for-turning said door body about one of its horizontal axes during such vertical movement, and spring biased, outwardly expandableweather stripping extending in a continuous strip from top to bottom oi each lateral edge 01' said door toward and in pressing engagement with its adlacent lamb when the door is in closed position and means comprising said lambs for limiting said outward expansion D of said weather stripping when the door is in open position. v

12. Acanopy type overhead acting door comprising a door body, a door opening including laterally spaced lambs having flat, unobstructed surfaces substantially parallel with the lateral edges of said door body, said surfaces extending over all portions of the lamb which are opposed to said edges during operation of the door, means suspending said door body for vertical, movement between said lambs, means for turning said door body about one of its horizontal axes during such vertical movement. weather stripping including an outwardly movable strip mounted on and interlocked with said door' body, said strip being located between the lateral edges of said door bodyand their adjacent lambs and extending from top to bottom of the door body, and spring means urging each movable strip into contact with its adjacent lamb when the door is in closed position, each strip being adapted to slide freely upon its adjacent lamb during movement of the dOOl'.

MILTON L. coamn. now nma K. BENNETT. 

